1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for locating, i.e., positioning a breast of a female patient in a diagnostic instrument for breast examination. The diagnostic instrument can be an X-ray machine for imaging a female breast (mammography), a CT scanner, or an ultrasound instrument. Furthermore, the invention relates to an X-ray machine or a CT scanner with suitable means for locating or positioning a breast of a female patient, and also a method for operating a machine of this kind.
2. Description of Related Art
Various instruments, such as X-ray-machines and CT scanners, are used for examining a female breast. An embodiment of a CT scanner is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Publication No. 2006/0094950. The CT scanner described in the US Publication comprises a rotating gantry, which has an X-ray tube and an X-ray detector, disposed below a patient table on which a patient to be examined lies. A breast of the patient to be examined projects through an opening in the patient table into a beam path of the X-ray tube and detector. In order to maintain constant conditions during examination, the breast to be examined is pushed upwards by means of a pushing implement and put into a predefined shape. A displacement of the pushing implement makes it possible to adapt to different breast sizes. However, the adaptation provided by the pushing implement is only of length, and not of diameter.
Another device for stabilizing a breast of a patient is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,188. In this patent, a cup of rubber-like tissue is inverted to cover and draw the breast away from the patient using a cord. This elongates the breast and compresses the diameter of the breast. However, the stabilizing device described in the US patent is unable to exactly reproduce the position and shape of the breast.
Another device for stabilizing a breast of a patient is disclosed in U.S. Publication No. 2004/0082856. In this publication, outer contours of interchangeable inserts in the patient table ensure that the position of the breast is firmly fixed. Problems continue to exist in that different inserts of different sizes are used in repeated examinations, and therefore individual exposures are hardly comparable with each other.